Joachim Gauck

Nevertheless, he added that it has already done so by entering the EU membership negotiations.

Kleine-Brockhoff told the Beta agency in an interview that basic regulations of the European Union do not prohibit member countries from maintaining good relations with countries outside the Union, and that by joining the EU Serbia could influence EU's foreign policy.

It started with an investigation into a suspected terrorist plot by an army soldier aimed at top government officials. But it quickly uncovered a larger problem.

Billed as Germany's "anti-Trump", center-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected on Feb. 12 as the new ceremonial head of state.

The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany's most popular politician, will represent the EU's top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the nation.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has said his country needs access to the Schengen information system to bolster border protection.

Visiting Berlin, Radev has told counterpart Joachim Gauck his country counts on Germany to support it on its way to joining the Schengen area without border control.

President Rumen Radev is set to meet counterpart Joachim Gauck while on a one-day visit to Germany, his press office says.

Two caretaker ministers, Radi Naydenov (Foreign Affairs) and Teodor Sedlarski (Economy) will be accompanying him.

German citizens will decide on September 24 whether Angela Merkel will be re-elected for a fourth mandate as German Chancellor, reported AFP.

The federal government decided on this date for parliamentary elections in its proposal to President Joachim Gauck.

Roman Herzog, who as German president was a powerful advocate of economic reforms in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has died, the president's office said on Jan. 10. He was 82. 

The integration of European countries within the framework of the European Union must be halted temporarily. The EU needs to make a pause and think about future ways of development based on new principles, stated the Federal President of Germany Joachim Gauck.

BELGRADE - German President Joachim Gauck has urged for a "pause" in EU integration to allow all members to discuss "what they want to achieve at what pace," lest people forget the dangers of populism and why Donald Trump won the US presidency.

German President Joachim Gauck says it is "morally and politically necessary" to limit the influx of refugees into Europe.

“If democrats do not want to talk about limitations then populists and xenophobes will," he said in Davos on Wednesday.